Main:Larisa Iordache
Bucharest, Wallachia, Romania |Row 5 title = Years on National Team |Row 5 info = 2008-present |Row 6 title = Club |Row 6 info = CSS Dinamo Bucharest |Row 7 title = Coach(es) |Row 7 info = Octavian Bellu, Mariana Bitang, Florin Cotutiu Lacramioara Moldovan, Claudiu Moldovan, Gheorghe Orban, Ramona Micu, Adela Popa, Daniel Nistor, Aurica Nistor (former) |Row 8 title = Current status |Row 8 info = Injured - torn Achilles tendontorn Achilles |Row 9 title = Twitter |Row 9 info = @Larisa_Iordache}} Larisa Iordache (born June 19 in Bucharest, Romania) is an artistic gymnast. She's a 2014 two-time World silver medalist, 2012 and 2014 European Champion on floor exercise, the 2013 European Champion on balance beam and five-time Romanian National Champion. She won four medals at the 2010 European Championships (one gold, two silver, and one bronze) and six medals at the 2011 European Youth Olympic Festival (three gold and three silver). She is also a 2013 World bronze medalist in floor exercise and 2012 Olympic bronze medalist with the team. Iordache is known for her quick, dynamic and difficult work but also for inconsistency. Her strongest events are beam and floor and her weakest is uneven bars. Junior Career Iordache started to train for gymnastics at CSS Dinamo Club in Bucharest at the age of four and a half. In 2008 she became a member of the national junior team were she trained with coaches Ramona Micu, Adela Popa, Cristian Moldovan and Lacramioara Moldovan. She had a successful gymnast career medaling at various international competitions. 2009-2010 In 2009 she won the prestigious Top Gym Trophy. At the same competition she won gold on beam, bronze with the team, and placed seventh in the uneven bars final. The series of successes continued at the 2010 Romanian International Championships where her scores on beam and on floor were the highest of all the gymnasts, including the senior ones. Later that year she was a member of the junior team at the 2010 European Championships. Here she tied for gold on floor with Anastasia Grishina, won silver on beam and with the team, and bronze all around, and placed fourth on vault. 2011 In 2011 she won several all around titles at international competitions such as the Gym-Festival of Trnava (59.500) and a dual meet against Great Britain (58.300), and she scored 58.800 to lead the Alliance Dijon Gym 21 club to first place at the French championships. The highlight of the year was the win of six medals at the 2011 European Youth Olympic Festival among which three gold medals (all around, beam, and floor) and three silver medals (team, uneven bars, and vault). Senior Career 2012 Iordache competed at the 2012 American Cup in New York on March 3rd, her first international meet as a senior gymnast. She placed third, ahead of her compatriot Diana Chelaru, who placed fifth. Iordache also competed at the Doha World Cup, where she placed fifth on uneven bars behind compatriot, Diana Bulimar. In May, Iordache was named to the Romanian team for the European Championships. She posted the highest score on uneven bars for her team. The Romanians won the gold medal. Individually, Iordache won silver on balance beam and gold on floor exercise. On July 7th, Iordache was named to the Romanian team for the Olympics. That same weekend, Iordache competed at the Romanian International Friendly. She won a gold medal with the team and won the all-around ahead of compatriot Sandra Izbasa. Prior to qualifications, Iordache had been diagnosed with an inflammatory condition of the foot. It was rumored she would not compete the all-around because of it, but she stated she would. During qualifications, Iordache did in fact compete the all-around. She qualified to the all-around in eighth place. During the team final, Iordache competed on every event except floor exercise. Her performances helped Romania win the bronze medal behind the United States and Russia. Originally, Diana Bulimar was meant to participate in the balance beam event final, but was pulled out and replaced with Iordache. She scored a 14.200 and finished sixth. Iordache was scheduled to compete at the Stuttgart World Cup in late November and the Glasgow World Cup in December, but pulled out due to injury. 2013 Iordache was scheduled to compete at four World Cup meets: the American Cup, La Roche-sur-Yon World Cup, Cottbus World Cup (with teammate Diana Bulimar), and Doha World Cup. However, Iordache withdrew from the first three competitions. In Doha, she won gold on balance beam, and silver on floor exercise and vault (with a double twisting Yurchenko and full twisting Tsukahara). At the end of March, she was named to the Romanian team for the European Championships. Going into the European Championships, Iordache was one of the favorites for the all-around title, and even more so after qualifying first into the final. However, she placed second in the final to Russia's Aliya Mustafina. She won another silver in the vault final, tied with Netherlands' Noël Van Klaveren, a gold on balance beam, and silver on floor exercise. That summer, she was named to the Romanian's nominative team for the World Championships, which became official in the fall. In June, Iordache won gold on both balance beam and floor exercise (tied with her teammate Bulimar) at the Anadia World Cup in Portugal. She underwent brief treatment for a slight injury in August and missed a friendly meet in the Netherlands as a result, but recovered in time for the Romanian Nationals. There, Iordache won gold in the all-around and on bars and beam, and silver on floor and with her team. In qualifications at the World Championships, Iordache competed in the fourth subdivision. She qualified fourth to the all-around, first to the balance beam final, and third to the floor exercise final (tied with Italy's Vanessa Ferrari). In the all-around, she surprisingly fell on balance beam and finished fourth. In the balance beam final, she performed seventh, but fell on her tucked full and scored 13.933. She finished seventh. In the floor final, she competed fourth. She hit a very clean routine to score a 14.600. She won bronze behind USA's Simone Biles and Italy's Vanessa Ferrari. Following the World Championships, Iordache had a packed schedule. She was selected to compete at the Arthur Gander Memorial in late October, the Swiss Cup in early November, the Massilia Cup in mid-November, the Stuttgart World Cup in late November, and the Glasgow World Cup in December.StuttgartGlasgow She won the all-around at the Gander Memorial and the Swiss Cup. In the Master Team division at the Massilia, the Romanian team won the all-around, vault, beam, and floor, and placed sixth on bars. Individually, Iordache won the all-around, vault, beam, and floor. She qualified to the Top Massilia, and won gold on beam and floor and silver on vault. In Stuttgart, she had a fall on bars but performed well on the other pieces, especially on balance beam. After the balance beam rotation, her coaches filed an inquiry about her score, and it was raised four tenths. Iordache won the silver medal, 0.034 behind the gold medalist, USA's Elizabeth Price. In Glasgow, she had a fall on balance beam, but still managed to narrowly win the title over Price by almost six tenths. 2014 In January, she was announced as a competitor for the American Cup in early March,American Cup but withdrew with an injury in late February.AmCup withdrawal She competed at the Doha World Cup in late March, winning gold in all the events she'd qualified for: vault, balance beam, and floor exercise. In April, she competed at a friendly meet against gymnasts from Belgium and France, winning team and all-around gold medals. She was selected to the Romanian team for the European Championships in May. She won team and floor exercise gold, balance beam silver, vault bronze, and placed sixth on uneven bars. At the Romanian Nationals in late August, she retained her National title and won additional gold medals on every apparatus, except beam, where she won silver. The following week, she competed at a friendly meet against Germany and Switzerland, winning all-around, vault, balance beam, and floor exercise gold, team silver, and uneven bars bronze. Iordache led a very young Romanian team heading into the World Championships in Nanning, China. The nerves got the best of some of the younger athletes and Romania only qualified seventh into the team final, while Iordache qualified to the all-around, balance beam, and floor finals. They did much better in the team final and finished in fourth place. Iordache was one of the favorites for the all-around title, having upgraded and competed consistently throughout the year. She went clean on her first three pieces and was only a few tenths behind the leader, USA's Simone Biles, heading into the last rotation. She stepped out of bounds on her second tumbling pass, but upgraded her last pass to a full-twisting double pike to ensure a spot on the podium. She won the silver behind Biles and ahead of USA's Kyla Ross. In beam finals, she fell on her tucked full and finished in fifth place. She kept her piked full-in in floor finals and won another silver behind Biles. After Nanning, Iordache competed at the Arthur Gander Memorial in Chiasso, Switzerland. She chose to water down her floor routine, but had several mistakes that cost her the gold medal. She won silver behind Russia's Daria Spiridonova. She competed at the Swiss Cup Zurich a few days later, but did not make the finals. She had better luck at the Stuttgart World Cup in late November, winning the all-around ahead of Venezuela's Jessica Lopez and Germany's Kim Bui. She repeated her success at the Glasgow World Cup, winning ahead of Canada's Ellie Black and Lopez. 2015 Iordache missed the Cottbus and Doha World Cup meets and European Championships due to an ankle injury,ankle injury, World Cup & Euros withdrawal and the European Games due to conflicting exams.no Euro Games Her first competition of the season was a friendly meet against gymnasts from France, where she won team, all-around, vault, balance beam, and floor exercise gold and placed fifth on uneven bars. On September 25 through 27 Iordache competed at the Romanian Championships, where she won the all-around, placed first with her team and first on bars, beam and floor. At the Novara Cup in Italy in October, she won team and all-around gold and posted the highest scores on all four events. Iordache was named to the Romanian team for the World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, but Romania had many struggles. After leaving Catalina Ponor behind in Romania and losing Ana Maria Ocolisan to an injury, the team competed with only five gymnasts. They competed in the first subdivision of qualifications. Iordache scored under 14 on floor exercise, which left her in tears after just the first rotation. She hit her vault, but fell on both bars and beam. This plus the other falls from the team caused Romania to finish qualifications in thirteenth place, missing the team final for the first time in almost fifty years. Iordache didn't qualify to the event finals, but qualified to the all-around in fifteenth place. She had a much improved competition in the all-around, swiping a bronze medal behind Americans Simone Biles and Gabby Douglas. Iordache continued to excel after the World Championships, taking the all-around gold medal at the Gander Memorial in Switzerland. Afterwards, she competed alongside male compatriot Marius Berbecar at the Swiss Cup in Zurich, taking the silver medal. 2016 Iordache suffered a broken finger in training, leaving her out of the Test Event in Brazil in April.broken finger Her first competition back was the Romanian National Championships in July. She struggled however, suffering a contusion in training that landed her in the hospital and left her competition status up in the air,contusion, hospital but was cleared to compete. She took the all-around title for a fourth year in a row. In the event finals, although she hit a solid bars set to win the title there as well, she sustained a back injury when she landed her dismount. She competed in balance beam finals, winning a silver medal, but opted to withdraw from the floor exercise final. She went on to compete at a friendly meet against gymnasts from France, winning team silver and tying for silver in the all-around with France's Louise Vanhille. She struggled at her next competition, a friendly meet against gymnasts from Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, and Venezuela. She won team bronze but only placed ninth in the all-around. She was named the alternate to Cătălina Ponor for the Olympics. 2017 After not competing in Rio, Iordache decided she wasn't done with gymnastics. She only competed on bars and beam at the European Championships in Romania. She made the balance beam final, and after taking multiple steps on her dismount, her score held long enough to win her a bronze medal. She went on to win gold on bars and beam at the Koper World Cup in Slovenia in May. In August, she competed as an individual at the Universiade in Taiwan, competing the all-around for the first time in over a year. Although she had problems on balance beam throughout the competition, she was able to win all-around and floor exercise gold, balance beam bronze, and place fifth on uneven bars. She defended her all-around title at the Romanian National Championships, and won additional gold medals on bars, beam, and floor, as well as a team silver medal. In September, she competed at the Paris World Cup, winning gold on beam, silver on floor, and placing fourth on uneven bars. She was named to represent Romania at the World Championships. This year, they were held in Montreal, Canada, the same city that hosted the 1976 Olympics, when Nadia Comaneci scored the first perfect 10 in Olympic history. This was regarded as a very big competition for Romania, and after Iordache's performance at the Universiade, she went into the World Championships as a favorite for the all-around gold. Unfortunately, she tore her Achilles tendon in the warm-up for her first event in qualifications and had to withdraw.torn Achilles Medal Count Floor Music 2008-2009 - "Angelus" by Hitomi Shimatani from Best of InuYasha 2009-2012 (before Olympics) - "Diablo Rojo" by Rodrigo y Gabriela 2012-2013 - "Guitarria" by Benise 2013-2014 - "Jaiya Ho" by Sukhwinder Singh 2015 - "The Last Tango" by James Dooley 2016 - "Star Sky" by Two Steps From Hell 2017 - "Exosuit" by Epic North Trivia *Iordache's nickname "Pikachu" came from the yellow leotard she wore at the 2012 European Championships that someone said it reminded them of the character Pikachu from the anime series Pokémon. Iordache later wore the same leotard in the balance beam event final at the Olympics and during the all-around at the 2013 European Championships. References